1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a power connector and a power connector device, and particularly relates to a power connector and a power connector device, which have a finger protection function for avoiding erroneous contact of a component with a power supply terminal, across which a voltage is being applied, of the power connector, or electrical shock to an operator.
2. Related Art
JP-A-2002-56919 discloses a power connector device having what is called a finger protection function. The power connector device includes a pair of a male connector and a female connector that can be mated to the male connector.
The male connector incudes a male connector housing having an inner housing and an outer housing, and a male terminal fitting provided to the inner housing. On the other hand, the female connector incudes a female connector housing and a female terminal fitting provided to the female connector housing.
A housing space where a terminal housing tube portion of the female connector housing is housed is provided inside the outer housing of the male connector. In the housing space, a regulatory protruding portion protrudes toward the inside of the housing space to prevent a test finger prescribed by a standard from excessively entering the housing space. Moreover, a lock protruding portion where a lock arm of the female connector is locked is provided on an upper surface of the outside of the outer housing of the male connector. The lock arm of the female connector is provided outside the terminal housing tube portion of the female connector housing housed in the housing space.
When the male and female connectors are mated, the terminal housing tube portion of the female connector housing is housed in the housing space of the outer housing of the male connector. Moreover, it is configured in such a manner that the lock arm provided outside the terminal housing tube portion of the female connector is locked to the lock protruding portion provided on the outside of the outer housing of the male connector.
Such a typical power connector device as disclosed in JP-A-2002-56919 is configured to provide the lock protruding portion on the outside of the outer housing of the male connector to have the function of locking the lock arm. Hence, the size of the male connector tends to increase; therefore, the size of the female connector also tends to increase.
A reduction in the size of a connector device has been recently increasingly requested. An improvement in the connector structure is required for this request. An embodiment of the present disclosure has been made to solve such a problem. An object thereof is to add a locking function to a power connector having a finger protection function without increasing the sizes of the connector and a connector device.